Where There Is Smoke, There May Be Developmental Problems for Kids

UB researchers study pregnant smokers, their social networks and the effects of prenatal smoking on children

Published
March 7, 2012

BUFFALO, NY -- The dangers of cigarette smoking are common
knowledge. And when it comes to smoking while pregnant,
life-threatening health hazards extend to the fetus and
newborn.

With all this information available to pregnant smokers, why
don’t they quit?

Scientists at the University at Buffalo’s Research
Institute on Addictions (RIA) and the School of Public Health and
Health Professions are trying to shed light on this and other
questions related to the prevalence and dangers of smoking while
pregnant.

In a new study published recently in the journal Addictive
Behaviors, the researchers looked at the impact of social and
environmental factors on smoking cessation in a sample of
low-income, pregnant smokers.

They found that 47 percent of the women who smoked also had a
partner who smoked, a common research finding for smoking. What
surprised the researchers, however, was the finding that when a
woman’s friends smoked — friends with whom she spends
time, not relatives or other household members — the
likelihood that these pregnant women would continue to smoke
increased.

Gregory G. Homish, PhD, UB assistant professor in community
health and health behavior and first author on the study says that
it isn’t entirely clear why the influence of friends was
greater than the influence of family members.

“It may be related to the amount of time women spend with
friends compared to relatives. It is also possible that the nature
of the relationship is important to consider,” Homish
says.

But Homish cautions that pregnant women smokers -- whose social
network includes smokers -- have been shown to inhale side-stream
smoke, which contains higher concentrations of toxins than
mainstream smoke.

“Side-stream smoke readily enters the bloodstream and may
have significant physiological and neurological influences on the
fetus,” Homish says.

Co-researcher Rina Das
Eiden PhD, senior research scientist at the RIA, says the
finding “may point to the need for including the
woman’s social network and partner in smoking cessation
treatment.”

The findings are part of a larger research project. From 2006 -
11 the UB researchers studied pregnant smokers’ social
networks, behavior and overall health, as well as the health of
their newborn children, up to the age of two.

Eiden is the principal investigator on the five-year research
project known as “Prenatal and Environmental Tobacco Smoke
Exposure: Effects on Child Regulation,” funded by a
multi-million dollar grant through the National Institute on Drug Abuse
(NIDA).

The project has allowed UB researchers to examine the behaviors
of pregnant smokers, as well as the impact of prenatal exposure to
cigarettes on a child’s development of
“self-regulation” -- the ability to modulate emotions
and behave in socially appropriate ways.

In this research, Eiden and her co-investigators (Pamela
Schuetze, PhD, Craig Colder, PhD, Gerard
Connors, PhD, Kenneth
Leonard, PhD and Marilyn Huestis, PhD) observed infants of
smokers and non-smokers at two and nine months. At two months,
infants exposed to cigarettes were less physiologically regulated
during sleep compared to non-exposed infants. At nine months,
cigarette-exposed infants were less regulated in their
physiological reactions to a frustrating situation compared to
non-exposed infants.

“This type of physiological dysregulation has been
connected with behavior problems in other studies. We also know
that boys are biologically more vulnerable,” Eiden explains.
One goal of this study is to examine if this is due to child
exposure to nicotine or to the quality of the caregiving
environment, or a combination of both.

Eiden wants to continue studying the children of pregnant
smokers up to school age, when issues of self-regulation become
increasingly important and may predict social competence and
success in school.

Her project is also trying to determine if high quality care
giving--maternal behavior and characteristics--may protect the
child from the potentially negative consequences of cigarette
exposure.

For example, Eiden points out they have found that young mothers
may use smoking to deal with stress and may be using it to control
anger. Eiden posits that it may be possible to take the anger
management interventions that have been applied to alcoholism and
repurpose them for smoking.

She explains that the approach to interventions for pregnant
smokers needs to be thoughtful and multi-faceted because women may
have multiple reasons for smoking.

“It’s not enough to just tell pregnant women to quit
smoking. Helping them quit may involve teaching women strategies to
deal with stress or anger and providing support for them and their
partners as they deal with parenthood,” says Eiden.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public
university, a flagship institution in the State University of New
York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus.
UB’s more than 28,000 students pursue their academic
interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and
professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at
Buffalo is a member of the Association of American
Universities.

UB’s Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) is a
long-standing national leader in the study of alcohol and substance
abuse. For more than 40 years, RIA has conducted groundbreaking
research on significant addiction issues, including: